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/lit/ - Literature

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2445055 No.2445055 [Reply] [Original]

Hi /lit/,
I am a British guy turning 21 next month and plan on celebrating that fact by reading 21 books.

I don't consider myself well read, however my interests are more varied than just high school set texts or what the latest fad is.

Currently I have two books on my list,
- Concrete Island, J. G. Ballard
- Undertones of War, Edmund Blunden

What are you suggestions to help fill up the other 19 vacant spaces?
In b4 read the sticky

>> No.2445059

read the sticky

>> No.2445062

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

>> No.2445066

Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann

>> No.2445065

why are you so nerd

>> No.2445067

Tao Lin's body of work.

>> No.2445073

>>2445065
Is that directed towards me?

>> No.2445074

read some Toni Morrison if you like magical realism/humans
read Naked Lunch by William Burroughs

>> No.2445092

The /lit/ classic, The Great Gatsby.

>> No.2445106

>>2445092
>more varied than just high school set texts

>> No.2445177

OP here.
Thanks for your suggestions so far, will be back after 11 (GMT)

>> No.2445211

A Tomb For Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kis
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
The Book of Ebenezer le Page by G.B. Edwards
Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz
The Time of the Doves by Merce Rodoreda
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China by Lu Xun
Selected Stories by Robert Walser
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands by Joao Guimaraes Rosa
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati
Petersburg by Andrey Bely
Moravagine by Blaise Cendrars

>> No.2445238

Maybe add some Hemingway?

A Farewell to Arms perhaps?

>> No.2445255

Hey OP, have you read any T.S. Eliot?

Looking at the two books you have selected yourself, Eliot might interest you.

>> No.2445277

Don Paterson's trans. of RM Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus

>> No.2445307

I'm back /lit/

It's a shame to say it, but I have never read the great gatsby before. Gatsby is now on the list. Last year I went backpacking around Australia, however I don't think I have read anything from there. Maybe an Australia book or two might be good to add to the list.

Thanks for all your suggestions so far, please keep them coming.

>> No.2445347

Anyone else?

>> No.2445352

House of Leaves.

It's an odd book, and a challenging read at times (It jumps around both in story, and in formatting quite a lot, and at some points I was lost, not sure which line I was supposed to read next), but it's one of the most amazing stories I've ever read.

As you're turning 21, I wouldn't worry about it too much, but it definitely is a mature read. When I went through it I had to put it down many times, as I just couldn't continue. But, I always came back to it.

Even if it doesn't make it on your list of 21 books, you should read it anyways. It's just realllly good.

>> No.2445359

Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings
Joe Abercrombie's First law Trilogy

>Autralian

Garth Nix Abhorsen Trilogy

>> No.2445369

Kraken - China Miéville
World War Z - Max Brooks
The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell
Everything Ravaged Everything Burned - Wells Tower
Heroes Die - Matthew Stover Woodring
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Fallen Dragon - Peter F. Hamilton
Replay - Ken Grimwood
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
The Illuminatus!: Trilogy - Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson

>> No.2445371

why not 21 books in under a day?

tons of good novelettes and plays out there

>> No.2445382

>>2445371
I want to use this project to help broaden my knowledge of literature (Since I don't read enough fiction) and to grow as a person.

If you are still lurking out there,please recommend some novelettes.

>> No.2445385
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2445385

>Novelettes

>> No.2445391

>>2445382

isaac asimov - nightfall
ernest hemmingway - The old man at sea
H.G. wells - the time machine
george orwell - animal farm
john steinbeck - of mice and men
john steinbeck - the pearl
osacr wilde - the picture of dorian gray

anything by P.G. Wodehouse, they arent novella but they are really quick reads

>> No.2445412

The Book of Disquiet
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
Too Loud a Solitude
9 Stories
No Longer Human
Notes from Underground

>> No.2445414

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Beach - Alex Garland
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson

>> No.2445426
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2445426

>>2445391
>the old man at sea
>at sea
>at

>> No.2445434
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2445434

>>2445055
Eeeee Eee Eeee - Tao Lin
Best Behaviour - Noah Cicero
Selected Unpublished Blog posts of a Panda Express Employee - Megan Boyle
The Self-Esteem Holocaust Comes Home - Sam Pink
Leaving the Atocha Station - Ben Lerner
Nothing: A Portrait of Insomnia - Blake Butler
Suicide - Edouard Levé
Eat When You Feel Sad - Zachary German
Black Hole - Charles Burns
Damascus - Joshua Mohr

>> No.2445443
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2445443

>>2445434
Also:
Waiting for Godot - Beckett
The Crying of Lot 49 - Pynchon
On The Road - Kerouac
To the Lighthouse - Woolf
Naked Lunch - Burroughs
Petersburg - Bely
The Trial - Kafka
Revolutionary Road - Yates
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway

These 19 novels are the only novels man need read.

>> No.2446659

You need to have at least 1 Hunter S Thompson book.

>> No.2446664

>>2445434
>>2445443

Nice to know I'm not the only one who is interested in alt lit. Usually it's kind of a shameful secret I have to keep.

>> No.2446672

>>2446664
look at this fucking hipster.

>> No.2446683
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2446683

>>2446672

>> No.2446691

In America when we turn 21 we binge drink, but that's because of our crazy liquor laws... does britain have some kind of law forbidding people under 21 from reading?

>> No.2446716

chavs chavs chavs

>> No.2446739

This list is missing terry pratchett.

>> No.2447103

What kind of books are you into OP?

>> No.2447109

Needs moar kerouac bro

>> No.2447829

Oh wow, this thread survived.
Awesome.

Bumping for more suggestions.

>> No.2447838

>>2447103
It varies. Generally not into fantasy however.

>> No.2447840

>>2445443
YOU THINK HE'S READY FOR PETERSBERG, JON?

>> No.2447844

>>2447840
All book suggestions welcome. Have you got a suggestion caps guys?

>> No.2447848

>>2447844
urrgh, early morning fail. That should read "Caps guy"

>> No.2447855

>>2447844
HMMMMMM


SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION - FLAUBERT
THE RED AND THE BLACK - STENDHAL
THE DAMNED - HUYSMANS
GERMINAL - ZOLA
HELL - BARBUSSE
VATHEK - BECKFORD
THE TORTURE GARDEN - OCTAVHOWTHEFUCKYOUSPELLHISNAME
THE HORLA - MAUPASSANT
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO - DUMAS
LES MISERABLES - HUGO
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS - VERNE

WELL, THAT IS A NICE LIST OF INTRODUCTORY WORKS FOR VARIOUS FRENCH AUTHORED LITERATURE.

MIGHT BE ABLE TO PULL THE SAME OFF WITH RUSSIAN AND JAPANESE LITERATURE LATER, BUT YOU HAVE MORE THAN ENOUGH QUALITY STUFF RECOMMENDED ALREADY

>> No.2447866

I think the OP needs to master entry level before trying to read above his station. The OP, sounds like a total Plebeian.

>> No.2447870

>>2447866
I THINK THE ABOVE POSTER COULD HAVE MADE HIS POINT BETTER IF INCLUDED IN THE POST HE RECOMMENDED VARIOUS ENTRY LEVEL BOOKS TO ASSIST OP

>> No.2447887
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2447887

>>2447840
They're ALWAYS ready for Petersburg

>> No.2447888

>>2447887
WHAT DOES ONE READ AFTER PETERSBURG?

>> No.2447889

I see no dickens.

/lit/ is letting the britfag down.

>> No.2447894
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2447894

>>2447888
Anything they like. Except Joyce, fuck Joyce.
Because once they have read Petersburg, nothing will be the same, they wont even look at Pynchon with the loving eyes the once did. DFW? Forget it, he'll be resigned to the back of the shelf.

>> No.2447895

>>2447894
BUT BOTH OF THOSE AUTHORS ARE FROM POST-1950, AS IN, POST IMPORTANCE

>> No.2447903
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2447903

>>2447895
>post-1950s
>post-importance.
Woah there! Dave.

>> No.2447909

Fahrenheit 451
Dubliners
Heart of Darkness
Finnegan's Wake
Grapes of Wrath
Notes from Underground
Farewell to Arms
War and Peace
1984

>> No.2447911

>>2447889
what dickens do you recommend? I think it's 200 years or so since he was born so a dickens might be a good idea.

>> No.2447915

>>2447903
DON'T KID YOURSELF.

WHAT SOCIAL IMPORTANCE DOES CURRENT LITERATURE SERVE THESE DAYS?

>> No.2447916

>>2447915
TAO LIN
TAO MOTHERFUCKING LIN

>> No.2447917
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2447917

>>2447915
That love still exists.

>> No.2447941

Some great suggestions here. Thanks /lit/.
I'm off for the day. Hope to see some more when I get back home later.

>> No.2447955

>>2447941
DON'T YOU THINK YOU HAVE ENOUGH?

COME BACK WHEN YOU'RE READ SOME OF THEM MAN

>> No.2449685

needs more "baby's first"

>> No.2449839

ubik, Looking for Alaska, some Bret Easton Ellis,
Crime and Punishment, catcher in the rye, game of thrones.

>> No.2449847

why has nobody suggested the god of /lit/ David Foster Wallace yet?

Shame on you il/lit/erates.

>> No.2450159

>>2449847
because DFW was an overhyped meh tier author?

>> No.2450172

>>2449847

Because it'll be another ten years before we can finish Infinite Jest and give you an answer.

>> No.2450504

What a sad soon to be 21 year old.
Must be a neckbeard basement dweller.

>> No.2450598

Picking my list of 21 today.
Last bump for possible inclusions.

>> No.2450599

>>2450504
Thanks for the personal attack bro. For the record I do not live in a basement or have a neckbeard.

>> No.2451051

Hamlet
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
As I Lay Dying
Brothers Karamozov
Snow Country
The Temple of the Golden Pavillion

>> No.2451062

The Sword of Honour trilogy, by Evelyn Waugh. It's both pensive and humorous.
Same for Down and Out in London and Paris, by Orwell.

>> No.2451072

Make sure you purchase them all in one go and post a picture of your haul on /lit/ for us to masturbate to.

>> No.2452314

helping out a britfag and bumping this.

>> No.2452862

Picked ma books.

Cheers lit.

>> No.2452881

>>2452862
Which ones?

>> No.2452892

>>2452881
I think he mentioned the great gatsby earlier. I second the post from above asking you to buy them all at once and take photos to share here.